1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a token type content providing system, a token type content providing system and a potable user terminal for easily using content related to information which a user is interested in via a network when content related to information transferred to the user by various mediums is provided via the network
2. Description of the Related Art
Regardless of indoor or outdoor, various information is originated from various information notification mediums such as television/radio broadcast, bulletin boards, advertisement, magazine, show window and the like. Thus, the user has various opportunities for viewing various information from the various information notification mediums in various circumstances in daily life. In addition, the Internet has been remarkably developed recently and the WWW system which provides various digital content has been widespread. Thus, an enormous amount of contents can be used via the WWW. In addition, when the WWW provides digital content including detailed information which relates to information which the user directly views or hears from the various information notification medium such as television/radio broadcast, bulletin boards, advertisement, magazine, show window and the like, the user can refer to and use the content via the network.
When the WWW provides digital content related to information conveyed by the various information notification mediums such as broadcast, bulletin boards, advertisement, magazine, show window and the like, and when the user becomes interested in the content and wants to use it, the user thinks of a keyword and the like for specifying desired content among information appeared in the advertisement and magazine and the like and the user can searches for the content by using the keyword by using a server service for searching content on the WWW such as www.goo.ne.jp and the like. As a result, the user can access the content.
In addition, by including a resource location “URL” of WWW content related to information notified by the various information notification mediums, the user can refer to and use the content directly by using the URL.
However, operation load for the user is large and convenience is bad when the user predicts a keyword from the information conveyed by the various information notification mediums such as broadcast, bulletin boards, advertisement, magazine, show window and the like and searches for the content by using the keyword. Thus, a method for accessing related content on the WWW more efficiently is required.
As for a method in which the information notification medium transmits the URL itself, the user needs to memorize the viewed URL. However, in a circumstance where an enormous amount of advertising information is viewed or heard in the outside, it is very difficult that the user memorizes every URL since the amount of information which the user is interested in is very large. Thus, it is necessary to record the URLs by using some means. In addition, the user needs to input the recorded URLs by using a WWW browser.
In the case where only the URLs are recorded by using some means, when the user uses the content by using the URLs, it is difficult for the user to determine content which a URL provides. To determine content corresponding to a URL, the user needs to record information describing the URL in addition to the URL. As mentioned above, when a method is adopted in which the URL and the accompanied information are conveyed, load for the user is large when the user accesses the related content on the WWW.
Further, as for the URL, since the corresponding content is decided uniquely, there is a problem in that the URL only provides the same information to users even when the user have different points on which the users are interested in the information conveyed by the information notification medium.
In addition, it is desirable for the user to provide means for automatically marking information in which the user is interested according to a predetermined condition.
Printed matter such as a paper, a magazine and a street advertisement is included in the various information notification mediums which transmit information. However, since the space of the printed matter is limited and the amount of information which can be printed is limited, there is a case in which only main information can be described. The document of the WWW which has been widespread recently solves the above-mentioned problem of the printed document by introducing hyper text/hyper media in which a text or an image in the document is associated with other documents. In the hyper text, as for information which can not be described in the document for reasons of document layout, a hyper link corresponding to the information is provided in the document, so that the user can access, as necessary, the information which is not described in the document via the hyperlink.
In order to apply the merit of the hypertext not only to the document on the WWW but also to the conventional printed document, an technology is developed for embedding the hyperlink in the printed document. In T.Wakita et al., “attempt to merging WWW and paper media by using two dimensional code”, IPSJ Human Interface 98-HI-76,Vol.98, pp.1-6, Jan., 1988, a method is disclosed to handle the printed document like the Web page by configuring the printed document by embedding QR (Quick Response) code which is a Kind of two dimensional barcode in the position of the link.
In Toshifumi Arai, at.el., “Paperlink: A technique for hyperlink from real paper to electronic content”, In Proceedings of the ACM Conference o Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'97), pp. 327-334, Addison-Wesley, 1997, a method is disclosed for handling the printed document as a hypertext by defining action in the paper document by using VideoPen which is formed by combining a pen type small camera and a highlighter.
These technologies have been incorporated as an actual service. For example, in Internet barcode of Digit Inc. and Cue of Digital:Convergence Co. Inc., one can access a Web page by reading a barcode on the paper by using a special-purpose barcode reader and connecting to the Internet.
According to these services, labor for inputting a URL in the WWW browser on the PC can be saved when referring to information related to the printed information on the paper. However, since the medium is changed to the printed paper to the PC, it is difficult to use this system when the two mediums can be used. Especially, when trying to access information related to an advertisement in a train or a poster in the outside in which it is difficult to use the PC, the related information can not be referred to speedily. In recent years, the computer has been downsized and development of Wearable Computer is going on.
In addition, mobile communication infrastructure has become widespread, so that the environment is ripe for connecting the Internet irrespective of whether one is in the inside or in the outside. Against this backdrop, an information using system has been developed in which information on the network is allocated to a body of the real world such as a printed matter and the information is presented. In Jun Rekimoto and Katashi Nagao, “The world through computer”, Proceedings of the ACN Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology(uist '95), pp. 29-36, ACM Press, November 1995, a system is disclosed in which two dimensional barcode is attached to a body of the real world, and related information is provided in real-time by using the barcode.
By using the technology for configuring the small computer terminal, it is considered that a system for providing information of hypertext or hypermedia related to information printed, described or presented on a paper or other mediums which is transferred to the user can be realized as a service system which is more practical and usable.
However, there are some problems in the conventional system in the aspect of practicality. For example, various headlines of articles are arranged in a strap advertisement of a weekly magazine. If the approach using the barcode is adopted for realizing a system in which a user accesses information related to an article selected from among the articles, it is necessary to embed barcode for each headline, so that there is a problem that appearance quality of the advertisement is lost. Instead, when an approach of providing one barcode in the corner of the advertisement is adopted, the barcode should identify a plurality of items of information, so that it is necessary to decide an order by which a plurality of items of information are presented to the user. However, there is no conventional system which can perform this process.
In addition, there is a problem in that information unnecessary for the user is provided, and it is necessary to improve this problem.
By using the information providing system, a business attaching an advertisement to related information which is provided can be considered. For example, assuming that a picture of a fine play in a yesterday's baseball game is appeared in a sports section in a newspaper, and that a link is established for the picture and one can access images of scenes of the fine play by following the link, a business can be considered in which the image is provided to a user at no charge by inserting a CM in the last image of the scene and advertisement rates are obtained from the sponsor of the inserted CM. However, there is no conventional system for inserting attached advertisement content.
In addition, there is no means for providing image and sound, especially image and sound in a live, and other information in association with the printed matter. Therefore, for example, it is impossible to obtain image and sound indicating current state of a point and weather information at the point by selecting the point on a road map printed on a paper.
In addition, there is no mechanism for playing back the obtained image and sound from a desired position. Generally, a video image of a baseball game is stored as a video image from the start of the game to the end of the game. Thus, it is necessary to specify an address of the video content and a playback start position to view a scene of a fine play.
In addition, according to the conventional systems, it is impossible that printed matter is provided after translation, content is played back after converted to voice, and when an article is a quiz, the user answers it, obtains the answer and a program relating to the article is provided, or, by selecting an article, a server in the network performs a necessary setting.
In addition, a mechanism is not provided in which a predetermined setting is performed in the network side by selecting the printed article. The mechanism is, for example, for setting for recording reservation in the network side by selecting TV information in the outside.
In addition, there is more important problem in connections between the printed matter and the medium used for accessing the related information such as PC and the like according to the conventional system. It is necessary to improve this problem and realize a method for presenting information closely related to information on the printed matter. In addition, the user terminal should be compact and lightweight, and portable.